have any further advice to give, give it, and we shall gladly follow it; for we hate the rage, the wiles, the knaveries of Satan everywhere, on all sides, ceaselessly, so that it will give us pleasure to meet him or harm him in any way ./Farewell in the Lord, you and your wife. My little Hans sends greet- ing. He is in the teething month and is beginning to say "Daddy," and scold everybody with pleasant insults. Katie also wishes you everything good, especially a little Spalatin to teach you what she declares her little Hans has taught her, namely, the fruit and joy of marriage, of which the Pope and all his world was not worthy. ^/^ Martin Luther.
74^ ALBERT OF MAYENCE TO HENRY VIIL
Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, iv, no. 2776.
AscHAFFENBUBG, January 3, 1527.
Received his letter. Although the King seems to attribute to him more influence in the matter of Luther than he de- serves, confesses that he has used great efforts to crush that heresy. Commends the King for the victory gained by his book over Luther. Praises it for its orthodoxy and un- answerable arguments. Has commanded it to be printed.
750. LUTHER TO PHILIP, LANDGRAVE OF HESSE. De Wette-Seidemann, vi, 86. German. Wittenberg, January 7, 1527.
Grace and peace in Christ. Serene, highborn Prince, gracious Lord. To the request which your Grace makes for an opinion of your Ordinance,^ I answer unwillingly, inasmuch as many blame us, as if we of Wittenberg would force everyone to do as we do, although we know that God wills otherwise and that others can do well without our aid. But to oblige your Grace, and since the Ordinance might raise an outcry if pub- lished without my consent, I humbly and faithfully advise you not to allow it to be printed at this time, for I have never had, and have not now, sufficient courage to pass so many
^ On October ao, 1536, Frauds Lambert, at the request of Philip of Hesse drew up an ordinance known as the Reformatio tccUtiorum Hassiae expressing the Lutheran doctrines and institutions for the use of the local clergy. The Refor- matio is most conveniently found in Kidd, pp. aaaff. On it see Kohler: Die Entstehung der Reformatio ecclestarum Hassiae, in Zeitschrift fUr Kirchenrecht, 1906, 2i3flF.
�� �
